There’s a new-to-me Cape Cod Baseball League documentary called Summer Heat by D.J. Jamiel and Nick Johnson. The film centers around the 2014 Hyannis Harbor Hawks and initially sought funding via Indiegogo. I believe it is not available anywhere, except a single link on the Harbor Hawks home page.

I enjoyed watching Nick’s Hawks Talk during the 2014 season, which was an ambitious 40-episode video blog.

This is a photo of me in the CCBL Hall of Fame and Museum from May 2015.

This is a photo of me in the CCBL Hall of Fame and Museum from May 2015.

A year ago, we checked in on the construction site of the future home of the CCBL Hall of Fame, the Total Athletics of Cape Cod Training Center in Hyannis. Things weren't going well.

Unfortunately, things still aren't going well. The Cape Cod Times has reported that the project "has been mired in lawsuits and delays, and now may not even be built on land cleared to make way for the project." The project's completion date was supposed to be July 1, 2018.

The CCBL Hall of Fame and Museum was open from July 2008 to January 2017 in the basement of the John F. Kennedy Museum Hyannis. For the price of admission to the JFK Museum, you could take the elevator down to "The Dugout" and spend an hour or two browsing all of the artifacts and reading the HOF plaques. It was awesome. It was much better than the blown up photos of the Kennedy family on the main level.

For two years now, the Hall has been without a home. I hope all the artifacts are in safe locations.

With the latest news about Total Athletics, I would hope that the league is considering other locations. I think the perfect spot would be a standalone museum and gift shop on Main Street in Hyannis. But, given the investment, I'm sure the league prefers a public place with an existing staff that could operate the museum with limited additional cost. One rumored location is the Cape Cod Community College. I'm not sure if the Wilkens Library has any space at all, but all Cape residents and visitors are welcome there. One thing is for sure: that'd be better than what we have now (nothing).

Brady Singer (Falmouth ‘16) is making headlines this holiday season. Not only is he the Kansas City Royals top prospect, but he surprised his parents with an incredible Christmas gift: he paid off all their debt. Watch the video from Twitter to see the reaction.

Today is very special to my heart. To give back to the two people who have given up everything to support my brother and I. I can’t thank them enough. Love you Mom and Dad pic.twitter.com/AFHi2Xma0c

Singer pitched 28 innings for the Commodores in 2016. In 2017, Singer helped his Florida Gators to a national title and earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team. This year, he won the NCAA’s Dick Howser Trophy for national college baseball player of the year, and was selected 18th overall in the Major League Baseball draft.

Without any fanfare, Fox Sports released “Cape Cod: Journey to the Bigs” on their Vimeo account. If you haven't seen the 22-minute mini-documentary, it centers around the 2017 season and features interviews with volunteers, players, managers, alumni, scouts, and host families including Barbara Ellsworth (known as Mrs. E). Mrs. E. passed away on October 31, 2018, and was inducted posthumously to the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame on December 1, 2018.

Wareham Gatemen store.Lots of gear available from the 2018 champs and this seems to be the only store where you can get a CCBL winter hat!

Donate to the CCBL or the team of your choice in the name of a loved one.

A custom bat from the Barnstable Bat Company (just like the players use!). I recommend the stickball bat, which is an excellent replacement for the standard yellow wiffle ball bat. Place all Christmas orders by December 10th!

Browse capesports on eBayThe former Hyannis Sportscards in Hyannis continues to sell goods on eBay. There's always a few Cape League artifacts listed for sale.

Books or DVDs about the Cape LeagueThe young adult novel Widball came out this year (read our interview with the author). Note: Slider (2004) is a novel loosely based on the league. Summer Catch (2001) is a cheesy movie starring Freddie Prinze Jr. that is a highly inaccurate portrayal of the league (but I love it anyway).

There are 14 former Cape League players in the 2018 World Series; six on the Boston Red Sox and eight on the Los Angeles Dodgers. That’s 35.7% of all players!

Boston Red Sox

RHP Matt Barnes (Wareham 2009-2010)

RHP Joe Kelly (Yarmouth-Dennis 2008)

LHP Chris Sale (Yarmouth-Dennis 2009)

1B Mitch Moreland (Bourne 2006-2007)

1B/OF Steve Pearce (Cotuit 2004)

OF Jackie Bradley Jr. (Hyannis 2009)

Los Angeles Dodgers

LHP Scott Alexander (Brewster 2009)

RHP Walker Buehler (Yarmouth-Dennis 2014)

RHP Dylan Floro (Hyannis 2011)

LHP Rich Hill (Chatham 2000-2001)

C Yasmani Grandal (Brewster 2008)

3B Justin Turner (Yarmouth-Dennis 2005)

IF Max Muncy (Wareham 2010-2011)

UTIL Chris Taylor (Yarmouth-Dennis 2011)

Research notes:

CapeCod.com reported on Tuesday 10/23 that each team has seven players each on their World Series rosters. However, that is inaccurate because they missed the latest team roster moves. Drew Pomeranz replaced Brandon Workman (Wareham 2008-2009) on the Red Sox roster. Scott Alexander (Brewster 2009) was added to the Dodgers roster, replacing Caleb Furguson.

Fangraphs observed that the Madison Mallards of the Northwoods League cracked the top 25 this year for average attendance among non-MLB franchises (see A Collegiate Summer Team Outdrew Most of the Minors). The Mallards’ average attendance per game was higher than many Minor League Baseball AAA franchises from the International League and Pacific Coast League.

CodBall recently observed that attendance overall at summer league games increased slightly on the Cape this past year. Also, we noted that the Northwoods League, in particular, seems to have a recipe for success.

It’s exciting that collegiate summer ball franchises have the potential to attract more fans than professional minor league franchises. The statistics seem to indicate that many markets may have been deemed unsuitable for MiLB or independent leagues, yet still have a lot of fans that want to see high-quality baseball - at least in the summer months!

For the Cape League, attendance probably isn't likely to shift too much. Cape Cod is a popular tourist destination and also a bucket list trip for hardcore baseball fans, but it is not a significant market. What's compelling is if the product that the Cape League has could work in an online streaming format or via cable sports networks. In our last post, we mentioned that the former skipper for the Wareham Gatemen, Don Sneddon, thought television coverage of the playoffs could be a revenue stream for the league.

Don Sneddon, Field Manager for the Wareham Gatemen from 2017-2018, was quoted in a Wicked Local Marion article saying that the season is too long and the league must make changes.

From the article:

“It’s up to the administration of this league to make sure they are making some changes or this league will see hard times, in my opinion."

One fascinating point that Sneddon makes is that the league can do more to make money to make up for the lost revenue from a shortened season. He notes that the Championship had no television coverage. This certainly seems like something the league should explore since not everyone can make it to the Cape…

Isaac Collins (Creighton) not only earned a championship ring with Wareham this season, but he also snagged the #1 spot (!) on SportsCenter's Top 10 Plays this week. Check out the video proof in the tweets below:

Overall, this was a great season for summer ball! Cape League attendance numbers increased slightly over 2017. Per usual, Chatham had the highest reported figures with an average of 1840 fans per game. Compared to other summer leagues, the Cape's numbers trail far behind many Northwoods League franchises, including the Madison Mallards, who pulled an impressive 6249 fans per game this season. As I mentioned in a previous post, the Northwoods League is for-profit and operates in larger markets.

Interestingly, Wareham finished atop the Cape League this year but finished dead last in reported attendance.

For the uninitiated (and you may want to stay that way), the CCBL is the setting for Summer Catch, which stars Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jessica Biel.

Matt Paré announced his departure from baseball earlier this year after spending a few years in the Giants organization. In 2012, he was a temp player for the Y-D Red Sox before spending the majority of that summer with NECBL's Newport Gulls. Subscribe to HomelessMinorLeaguer on Youtube and his other channel Hey! Matt Paré.

Ty Kelly is a utilityman for the New York Mets organization, currently in AAA with the Las Vegas 51s. In 2008, he was a CCBL All-Star on the Brewster Whitecaps.

Don't miss this new clip from Lower Cape TV with Brewster coaches Tommy Weber and Neil Barbella. Download the LCTV App to watch all Brewster Whitecaps home games this season.

The players right away band together, eat together, live together, laugh together. It’s really not that difficult for them. That’s one of the things that really impresses me about this level of player - how easily they adapt to new surroundings, their host families. There’s not a lot of instances of guys wanting to go home. They know what the stakes are and how lucky they are to be here, and they really embrace it.

The Cape Cod Times has renewed their Cape League podcast, Cape League Corner, for a second season. The first episode of the 2018 season is out now and features an interview with Commissioner Paul Galop. Subscribe in iTunes or your preferred podcast app.

Sixteen former CCBL players were selected in the 2018 First-Year MLB Draft, including the first three overall picks. RHP Casey Mize (Wareham '16, Auburn) was selected first overall, catcher Joey Bart (Harwich '17, Georgia Tech) went second, and Alec Bohm (Falmouth '17, Wichita State) went third. See CapeCodBaseball.org for the full list of first-round selections.

For those keeping track, the CCBL seems to have had significantly more alumni selected in the MLB draft than any other collegiate summer league. The Northwoods League (previously blogged about) had one former player chosen in the first round.

The Northwoods League ( NWL) is a collegiate summer baseball league in the Upper Midwest. Since founded in 1994, the NWL has grown to 20 teams with the most attendance of any summer league. TwinCities Business published an in-depth look at the league's history and finances: A League of His Own (May 25, 2018).

What makes the NWL possibly better than the CCBL?

Games are at minor league-quality ballparks, some of which were vacated by Major League Baseball as they moved franchises further south for larger cities and better spring weather.

The NWL and its franchises seem to have more money than any other summer league; this is because the NWL is for-profit, and teams operate in larger markets than the CCBL. More money means that the league and its franchises can invest more in the fan and player experience.

The Grind. Unlike the CCBL, teams must take long bus rides to travel between cities, which more accurately replicates what a player will experience in the minors.

Ultimately, both leagues have their unique appeal. The NWL fills a void left by former Minor League and independent ball clubs in the Upper Midwest. The CCBL provides a nostalgic experience with town-based teams.

The most significant difference between the leagues? The CCBL has the top talent. In the 2017 MLB draft, 253 CCBL alumni were selected, with 10 players in the first round (CCBL's MLB Draft results). The NWL had 181 alumni selected, with no players in the first round (NWL's MLB Draft results).

Dunkin' Donuts Park is home to the Hartford Yard Goats (AA Affiliate of the Colorado Rockies). Photo credit: Quinnipiac University.

Dunkin' Donuts Park is home to the Hartford Yard Goats (AA Affiliate of the Colorado Rockies). Photo credit: Quinnipiac University.

Dunkin' Donuts Park will host the Tuesday, July 24, 2018 game between the Y-D Red Sox and the Wareham Gatemen. The Gatemen will likely be the home team since the official CCBL schedule still has the game listed at Wareham. The first pitch is scheduled for 12:30pm, which means that both teams will likely start their buses very early in the morning to practice beforehand. Tickets will be $10, according to NBC Connecticut.

This game is interesting for a couple reasons:

It seems like the furthest (at least distance-wise) location a CCBL game has ever been played away from a team park. Dunkin' Donuts Park is a bit over 2 hours driving time (without traffic) from Clem Spillane Field in Wareham. It probably took longer for teams to travel to Nantucket and maybe Martha's Vineyard when games were played there.

This marks a return to CCBL games being played off-Cape, which has received some backlash from fans in the past; especially with regards to when the All-Star Game was held at Fenway Park.

Fox Sports' special "Cape Cod: Journey to the Bigs" will premier on FS1 on Tuesday, April 17 at 11PM, following the Indians/Twins game and MLB Whiparound. The special will also air on Fox Sports' regional networks on April 18 (check your local listings).

The special follows three players who played in the 2017 season: Griffin Conine (Cotuit, Duke), Tristan Pompey (Wareham, Kentucky) and Chandler Day (Orleans, Vanderbilt).

Jake Anchia (Nova Southeastern University) made some noise with Wareham this past summer. He led the team in RBIs (20) and home runs (5). He also participated in the 2017 Friendly's Home Run Hitting Contest and led the West Division with four home runs.

The Miami Herald posted a great story about Anchia and his father's success in immigrating from Cuba. His father boarded a shrimp boat when he was 11, started a family, and worked his way up to deputy fire chief in Miami Beach. Jake said, “My dad is an inspiration... He came here not knowing any English. He lost his father when he was only 20. But he still worked hard to pursue the American Dream... If he could pull all that off, then I feel like I can do it without a problem.”

Anchia is the starting catcher for the NSU Sharks and is in his junior year.